I've just got a new game listed on apps.tv. It's my own take on Reversi. Believe it or not, I was always planning this as my first game, but then PlayTeeVee came up with theirs, so I put it aside. Now theirs is gone, so, here's mine.

It automatically takes advantage of high-definition mode, if available, which I believe makes it technically the first HD game for the TiVo. But don't get too excited -- the graphics are very simple. It's more about keeping circles circular, and squares square.

You can play against the computer, or against another TiVo user. The computer is a slightly better player than in PlayTeeVee's version (though more erratic), but the algorithm was chosen mainly for its low CPU usage.

Right now, this is running on my home machine. If anyone would like to donate better hosting, let me know. (It just needs Python, and an open port.)

Acknowledgments: The routine that determines the set of legal moves was adapted from Brent Burley's Reversi.py, and the computer's strategy from Mark Williams' "Positional" strategy for the same program. Some ideas were drawn from PlayTeeVee's version, as well as from Iagno, and from the Wikipedia article on Reversi.

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Fixed a couple of stupid bugs that I'd added recently -- the app would crash when going from board to menu to board again, or when entering the dual player waiting screen before the animation on the splash screen was done.

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About dual-player mode: I've often been online when someone else was, but only twice has the other player come to play against me. I'd really like to encourage people: if you see someone else come on, and you're playing against the computer, quit your game and go play the human. They're much more interesting opponents.

One thing I noticed in both cases was that my opponents initially seemed confused by playing white, since in the single-player games the human player is always black. So, I've changed the dual-player mode so that the first one to enter (the one who gets the "Waiting for opponent" screen) is white, and the second player to enter (the one who accepts the invitation, as it were) is black. This also lets the second player make the first move, while waiting for the first player to notice that the game is on.

Note that, according to studies of the game, there's no advantage to playing black or white -- perfect play ends in a draw -- although their optimal strategies are different.

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I've added a couple of new game modes. One is two-player local, where your remote just alternates between controlling black and white. (If you have two remotes, one for each player, so much the better.) The other is the opposite: "demo" mode, where the computer controls both players.

I haven't yet decided how or whether to include these in the menu, so for now they're only accessible via the number keys: '0' for two-player local, and '3' for the demo mode. (BTW, I never announced it, but '1' (for "vs. Computer", formerly known as "single-player" mode) and '2' (for "vs. Human", formerly "dual-player") have been available as menu shortcuts since the beginning.)

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Some of you may have noticed a lot of Reversi outages lately. This is because the computer it's running on is connected to a flaky old router that keeps dying for no reason, until the router is rebooted. I'd have fixed this before now, except that I'm moving on Friday. That will mean an extended outage, but I'll try to have it back up by the end of the day.

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Updated with my new understanding of direct keyboard input -- if you have a Slide or other USB keyboard, or are using the KEYBOARD command via the network interface, you now can (and must!) use the remote's ability to enter mixed case directly, along with symbols, without having to change the board. However, when using the IRCODE command via the network interface (as in the current version of my remote program), you still need to change the board to change case.

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So, apparently, two-player mode ("Play Human") has been essentially broken since I added output buffering to HME for Python -- in March of 2009. And I just realized this tonight, after finally managing to play a two-player game despite the problem. I was pressing the keys in frustration while waiting for my opponent to move, and saw that the screen only updated when I did so. He must've seen the same thing. Before that, I'd had a few two-player games that started, but never went anywhere, so I just quit them, mistakenly blaming the other player for not moving.

I imagine I would've noticed this sooner if I'd been able to get more two-player games going in the first place. It's been a once-every-few-months kind of thing. Then again, maybe people were avoiding "Play Human" because they knew it was broken? But no one told me.

Anyway, it's fixed now. I hope more people will try it.

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Apps.TV is no more. Consequently, Reversi is unavailable for now. I'm still thinking about what to do about this. In the meantime, I guess I should power down the Mac Mini that's been hosting it for the last few years.

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Reversi lives! If you want to use it, just add this IP to your TiVo's menu:

71.18.73.156

I may provide other apps in the future, but for now, there's only Reversi (and there's no selection mechanism, as there was with apps.tv). I've pre-paid for this for two years, and I control it, so expect it to stick around for a while.

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In regards to the "Human Play" mode. When you see that there is a human on, does that mean he's waiting for someone to play against and you're required to make the first move?

No, it's just a count of total users online (including you). But if you actually enter the "Play Human" item and get a game board, then yes, there's another person with you, and it may or may not be your turn. You should be able to figure it out from what's onscreen... if you can make a move, then it's your turn.

If you just see "Waiting for opponent...", it means there's an odd number of people (usually one) who've chosen "Play Human", and the program is waiting for someone else to choose it so you can be paired up.

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Also, where do I go to find other apps or widgets to load onto my TiVo?

Since apps.tv went down, at the moment, I think this is the only third-party hosted app on offer.

However, if you don't mind hosting them on your own PC, there are a few listed here:

New feature: The selector is displayed as solid only when on a square that constitutes a valid move for the active player; otherwise it appears as dashed. (Previously it was always solid.) This gives you an indicator of valid and invalid moves without having to actually click select and hear the bonk.

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